The Mystery of 52
Book 4 | Informational
MODULE 1 | THE SEA
BOOK SUMMARY
In 1989, the U.S. Navy’s underwater microphones recorded a mysterious new sound. To identify it, the Navy sought help from marine biologist William “Bill” Watkins. In The Mystery of 52, readers follow Bill, who studied marine acoustics and found this new sound confounding. The sound had all the features of a whale call but at a much higher pitch than that of other whales. Bill and his team had never been able to track individual whales, but the unique 52-hertz pitch of this call allowed them to track the unseen whale. They named the whale 52 and thought it could be a blue, humpback, or fin whale—or even a hybrid. Yet none of the unique calls of these whales sounded just like 52’s call. Bill spent the rest of his life tracking 52’s solitary travels through the Pacific Ocean, but he never saw the creature. To this day, the whale remains a mystery to researchers around the world.
WORLD KNOWLEDGE
✔ Scientists use special equipment, such as hydrophones, to study ocean sounds and to learn more about marine life.
✔ Scientists can identify baleen whale species by analyzing sound wave patterns of their calls.
✔ Humpback whales make complex songs; fin whales make simple low-frequency pulses; and blue whales make loud calls in low tones.
✔ Scientists discovered a lone whale making a unique call at a frequency of 52 hertz, so they named the whale 52.
WORD KNOWLEDGE
FLUENCY PRACTICE
What fluency challenges do you hear when your students read? Use the supports below to plan targeted exercises for practice.
FOCUS PURPOSE
ACCURACY
Do students accurately decode most words? If not, are there error patterns? practicing phonics: suffix -tion
INSTRUCTIONAL SUPPORT
• Review that the suffix –tion is usually pronounced “shun.”
• Display the Warm Up Card and then Echo Read the following words: institution, location, migration, population, question, station.
• Read the passage aloud and instruct students to use a nonverbal gesture (e.g., raise their hands) when they notice a word with the –tion suffix.
• Choral Read the passage.
• Instruct students to partner read the passage and to pay attention to accuracy.
PRACTICE PASSAGES
chapter 2, page 12 station chapter 4, page 50 migration population
PHRASING
Do students chunk words together into meaningful phrases as they read? noticing colons
• Review that readers should make a long pause after a colon.
• Read the passage aloud. Instruct students to use a nonverbal gesture (e.g., raise their hands) when they hear you pause for a colon.
• Echo Read the passage, modeling correct pausing.
• Instruct students to partner read the passage and to pay attention to their pausing and to provide each other with feedback as needed.
chapter 3, page 11 chapter 5, pages 57–58
EXPRESSION
Do students demonstrate understanding of the text through proper expression? reading thoughts and dialogue
• Review the use of quotation marks, italics, and thought bubbles as tools for showing a character’s words or thoughts.
• Think aloud to model using clues from the text to choose an appropriate expression when reading Bill’s question on page 19.
• Echo Read the questions in the selected passage, ensuring students use appropriate expression.
• Instruct students to identify clues that helped them read with appropriate expression.
• Instruct students to partner read the passage, using appropriate expression and providing feedback to each other as needed.
chapter 3, pages 24–25 chapter 5, page 52
WORKBOOK PRACTICE – COMPREHENSION
What comprehension challenges are your students facing? Use the targeted activities below for practice.
ACTIVITY PURPOSE ASSIGN
Title Detective, page 7 summarizing after first full read
INSTRUCTIONAL SUPPORTS AND EXTENSIONS
• Support: Instruct students to review each chapter and to jot notes on the activity. Tell students to discuss their notes with a partner.
• Extension: Facilitate a brief discussion about this question: What is important for an author to consider when titling a book chapter?
Read and Answer, page 12 categorizing information after chapter 4
Interview Questions, page 14 generating questions after first full read
• Support: Use the text to provide students with facts about each whale call. Instruct students to use chapter 4 in The Mystery of 52 to help them sort the facts.
• Extension: Instruct students to compare their notes with those of a partner after completing the activity. Tell students to discuss the similarities and differences between the three whale calls.
• Support: Post the six question words to encourage students as they brainstorm. Prompt students to consider what Bill may still have wanted to know about 52.
• Extension: Pair students to conduct mock interviews. Reinforce that while students may not know exactly how Bill would answer the questions, they can use text evidence to support their answers.
Prepare to Discuss, page 16 applying knowledge after first full read
Journal
Prompt, page 18 writing to express knowledge after first full read
• Support: Instruct students to reread chapter 2 in The Mystery of 52 with a partner and to jot examples of how listening was an important skill that Bill used throughout his life.
• Extension: After students complete the activity, plan 10–15 minutes for small groups to discuss the question on page 16. Following small-group discussions, provide time for students to share an example of how listening is important in their own lives.
• Support: Instruct students to review the text and to take notes that address the journal prompt. Provide students with sentence frames to guide their note-taking:
¨ The discovery of 52 is important because __________.
¨ Something we can learn from the mystery of 52 is __________.
• Extension: Instruct students to create a text feature to accompany their chapter. Provide students with a list of text features to choose from.
WORKBOOK PRACTICE – WORD WORK
What decoding and vocabulary challenges are your students facing? Use the targeted activities below for practice.
ACTIVITY PURPOSE ASSIGN
Word Ladder, page 2 building vocabulary and practicing spelling anytime
INSTRUCTIONAL SUPPORTS AND EXTENSIONS
• Support: Model how to complete a word ladder by working on the first rung of the word ladder as a group. Encourage students to work collaboratively in pairs or in small groups on the word ladder.
• Extension: Instruct students to generate an additional phonics hint and meaning hint using the word at the top of the ladder. Tell each student to write their hints and to take turns sharing them with a partner.
Word Study, page 4 applying morphology after chapter 1
Word Links, page 6 exploring words after chapter 2
• Support: Instruct students to reread pages 4–7 in The Mystery of 52 before completing the activity. Have students use their finger to trace the pathway that sound travels from the whale to the ship on page 7.
• Extension: Model using a dictionary to look for additional words that start with hydro. Instruct students to use a dictionary to find more words that start with hydro.
• Support: Instruct students to reread pages 21–23 in The Mystery of 52 before completing the activity.
• Extension: Provide time for students to discuss their answers with a partner. Tell students to brainstorm with their partners a new sentence that uses the terms hertz and pitch.
A Closer Look at Adjectives, page 10 applying grammar and usage after chapter 4
Glossary, page 22 building content vocabulary after first full read
• Support: Ask students this question: How do the suffixes –er and –est change the word large? Reinforce that the suffix –er makes the comparative form of an adjective and that the suffix –est makes the superlative form. Review the grammar terms comparative and superlative with students.
• Extension: Encourage students to share the true/false statement they wrote with a partner to see whether the partner can answer it correctly. Prompt students to help each other revise or clarify their statements, as needed.
• Support: Review the content words. Assign partners a word or words and instruct them to think of a simple action that shows what the word means. Have partners take turns acting out the words while other students identify the words.
• Extension: Tell students to review their glossaries in small groups before they engage in discussions about their books. Instruct students to choose two words from the glossary with their group and to take turns sharing how the words are related.